


Effective and Efficient

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Home and Away [20]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 13:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7894969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "any. any. Who's the boss?"</p><p>Dave Sheppard's new assistant, Jonathan Evans, is effective and efficient.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Effective and Efficient

“Good morning, sir.”  
  
Dave looked up from his laptop at his new assistant. Jonathan Evans was young, barely nineteen at a glance, and so far had proved efficient and effective, but he wouldn't last for long. It happened every time some moron on the board of directors stepped out on his wife with a pretty young assistant. All of the wives fired their husbands' female assistants, replaced them with young men, and Dave and the rest limped along with less-than-stellar assistance (women were better at multitasking than men) until the furor over infidelity died down and real assistants could be hired again.   
  
Jonathan always arrived at the office half an hour before Dave, so once Dave was settled in at his desk Jonathan brought him coffee, the latest edition of the Wall Street Journal and reviewed Dave's schedule for the day. Jonathan was attractive enough that Simon Collier's wife had passed him over to Dave because everyone knew Simon was secretly (not-so- secretly) queer, but not so attractive that Dave would be worried about him interacting with Kathy.  
  
Dave sipped his coffee. He'd told Jonathan on his first day how he liked his coffee, and every cup since had been perfect.   
  
“Are you ready for your day, sir?” Jonathan asked.  
  
Dave took a fortifying sip of coffee. “Lay it on me, son.”  
  
Jonathan raised his eyebrows, and Dave winced internally. As he only had two daughters, he never called people 'son'. That was something his father did, left over from his time in the Marines. To Colonel Sheppard, everyone was 'son'. But Jonathan tapped at his smartphone - it was company issued, Jonathan's own was a flip phone that was inert on his desk all day - and began to review Dave's schedule.  
  
“You have a nine o'clock review with Patrick Sheppard, a ten-fifteen marketing strategy meeting with Simon Collier, an eleven-thirty conference call with Grant Sherman, lunch with your wife at eleven-fifty, a conference call with Shen Xiaoyi at one, a meeting with Kevin Harding at two-fifteen, and then you're free to do paperwork.”  
  
Right around the time Jonathan said 'ten-fifteen', Dave felt a headache coming on. “Can I reschedule the call with Ambassador Shen?”   
  
“That's a negative, sir. She's running on a very different time zone.”   
  
Shen Xiaoyi and Kevin Harding both in one day was cruel and unusual punishment. “What about the meeting with Harding?”   
  
“He's flying in from Los Angeles this morning.” Jonathan raised his eyebrows questioningly, a soldier awaiting orders.  
  
“I'll need a lot more coffee than this," Dave said finally.  
  
“If I may sir,” Jonathan said, “the deal with Harding involves more money up front, but the meeting with Ambass­ador Shen is for a longer-term Defense contract.”   
  
Jonathan wasn't saying anything Dave didn't know, but Dave was surprised that Jonathan knew all that. “What are you getting at?”   
  
“If you take the call with Ambassador Shen, Alexander Moreland has an opening and can meet with Mr. Harding.” Jonathan poked at his phone some more, brow furrowed.   
  
Dave raised his eyebrows. "You have access to his calendar?” But Jonathan's suggestion had merit. Alex was on the board of directors with Dave, and where Dave was a Sheppard, Alex had been on the board of directors longer, so Harding wouldn’t feel snubbed if Dave shifted the meeting to Alex.  
  
“All of the assistants have access to all calendars so we can coordinate board meetings,” Jonathan said, but Dave knew that was a new development.   
  
“If you shifted the meeting with Harding over lo Alex, that would be very helpful,” Dave said.   
  
“Yes, sir.” Jonathan tapped at his phone some more. “It is done.”   
  
“Thank you Jonathan.”  
  
“Let me know if you need anything further, sir.” Jonathan inclined his head respectfully and returned to his desk.   
  
As Dave went throughout his day, he checked his calendar periodically, watched as events appeared, disappeared, were rearranged, reassigned to other executive officers. Jonathan also sent emails when someone called and left a message. He red-flagged any messages Dave needed to answer personally and triaged the rest. He answered the ones he could and requested follow-up from other people for the ones he could not. Jonathan was nothing if not efficient.

Over lunch with Kathy - catered from her favourite restaurant - Dave asked her where she'd found him.   
  
“This is delicious,” Kathy said, smiling after a mouthful of delicately-baked risotto. "Oh, Jonathan? From Nancy, actually.”  
  
“Nancy? John's Nancy?” She'd been Grant's Nancy much longer than she'd been John’s.   
  
Kathy nodded. “Yes. He was a staff officer for a general at the Pentagon. Received a medical discharge after he took a bullet for said general.”  
  
Dad had always been cagey about his time as a Marine, always left the family at one of the many Sheppard residences while he was posted far away. Dave's knowledge of military service was pretty sketchy, but he did know that Marines disdained anyone not a Marine, and John joining the Air Force had been a slap in the face. “Aren’t most staff officers for generals, I don’t know, a little higher ranked?” Jonathan didn't look old enough to be much more than, what, a second lieutenant?  
  
Kathy shrugged. “I figure a general can have whoever he wants as a staff officer. If Jonathan Evans was good enough to help with our country's defense, he's good enough for you and you won’t have to replace him with some blonde bimbo communications major four months down the road.”  
  
Dave winced again. He knew Kathy was smart and observant, but that just stung.   
  
Dave survived his afternoon meetings and retreated to his office to answer emails and calls and review the defense contract proposal from Ambassador Shen. At three, Jonathan stepped into his office with a new cup of coffee.   
  
“Sir,” he said, “Dr. Ambrose in R&D says he needs to speak to you very urgently.”  
  
Ambrose always needed to speak to Dave urgently, usually when he had an ego clash with one of the other lead scientists.   
  
“He’s at my desk right now,” Jonathan continued. “Do you want me to send him away, distract him, schedule a meeting at a later date, or admit him?”   
  
Dave’s instinct was to rebuff Ambrose firmly. “Distract him how?”   
  
“Ambassador Shen’s assistant sent some preliminary plans for the proposed clean energy research. I'm sure Dr. Ambrose would find them very interesting.”   
  
Jonathan was unreadable at the best of times. Dave was good at reading people. All Sheppards were by nature, and a good Sheppard Man was better by training. “What makes you say that?”  
  
“You have a JD MBA, sir.”  
  
“That I do.”   
  
“Do you have much experience with particle physics?”   
  
“Do you?”  
  
“I watched a lot of Star Trek, sir.”  
  
“And you think Ambrose will be distracted by what Shen's assistant sent?”  
  
“For at least forty-eight working hours, sir.”  
  
A week. Dave knew Ambrose could take two weeks to cool down from an epic freakout, and if he'd deigned to ascend from the research labs, his complaint was shaping up to be a pretty epic freakout.  
  
Jonathan took advantage of Dave’s hesitation to add, “You also have to consider Miss Sheppard's petition for a pony for her tenth birthday.”  
  
“Distract him,” Dave said finally. Right. Anna actually wanted a pony.   
  
“Very good, sir.” Jonathan ducked out of Dave's office, and as soon as the door was closed Dave turned on the intercom silently. Spy-mode was vital to assessing someone’s mood right before a meeting.  
  
“Dr. Ambrose,” Jonathan said smoothly. “Mr. Sheppard is very aware of your concerns, but an emergency situation has arisen. The Department of Defense has reached out with a proposal, and Mr. Sheppard needs your expertise right away to assess the viability of the proposal.”  
  
Dave had said no such thing. Exactly who was the boss, here?  
  
Dr. Ambrose spluttered. “Dave Sheppard is perfectly capable of -”  
  
“The new proposal involves an experimental alloy that interacts with neutrinos.”   
  
Dave huffed. The kid had been watching too much Star Trek. Ambrose was going to bite Jonathan's head off in three, two, one -   
  
“Neutrinos, did you say?” Ambrose sounded reverent, awed.

“That is what the proposal said," Jonathan said meekly. “But I'm not well-versed in -”  
  
“Send me the proposal right away,” Ambrose said. “I’ll be in my lab.”   
  
“Right away, sir.” Jonathan still sounded meek.   
  
Dave shut off the intercom and sat back. Jonathan had handled an angry scientist quite deftly. Maybe Kathy was right. Jonathan was a keeper, wouldn’t need to be replaced by a girl in four months. He did need to be reminded who was the boss, though. so Dave sent him on email, asking him to draft a memo about the pros and cons of potential ponies to buy for Anna.


End file.
